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A Friend of Mine asked me (over the phone) "Won't you get in trouble for Giving this Stuff Away?" in Amazement. I Explained to Her that Projects as GOOD as "Ubuntu" or "GIMPShop" or "Inkscape" or "Scribus" or "Font Forge" Encourage you to Post links to them: They WANT these Cool Tools to be Given AWAY to Everyone!

For millions of years a race of beings, whose evolutionary development infinitely exceeds your own, has scanned the universe for sentient life forms. Known as the Adjudicators, they have transcended the constraints of physical being, manifesting only as pure energy, and can navigate the universe effortlessly. Over eons these benevolent nomads have taken it upon themselves to nurture the seeds of civilization and to cultivate knowledge and peace.

For millennia your development has been monitored, and now, finally, your technological progress warrants the Adjudicators' intervention. As you are on the verge on harnessing quantum technology, the stepping stone to interstellar travel, contact with other intelligent life is your next inevitable step. With this comes the risk that ignorance and fear may cause disastrous conflict. In order to prevent this conclusion, we, the appointed emissaries of the Adjudicators, have made contact with you to facilitate your smooth transition into the Adjudicators' universal community. The Adjudicators have created a small area of super density in your solar system causing an infinite curvature of space-time, known as a singularity. This singularity has generated a wormhole in the fabric of space, through which we have established a link with your global communication system: the Internet. Through this we hope to bring you into peaceful contact with other intelligent life forms.

Bringing alien civilizations together has not always been easy, as conflict and rivalry between new neighbors is commonplace. The Adjudicators have therefore worked as intermediaries to assist in the drafting of treaties to prohibit the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, and to aid commerce and co-operation. By making these civilizations economically dependent upon the Adjudicator's highly advanced interstellar transport system, they have been able to enforce peaceful relations by restricting access to unruly planets. It became necessary however to define a means of political dispute resolution for diplomatic stalemates.

ROBOFORGE became the solution; robotic gladiators representing the opposing factions engage in combat, and the owner of the victor is awarded precedence in the disagreement. The political relevance of this solution has diminished as greater understanding between races allows discord to more frequently end in compromise. Its popularity as a public spectacle, combined with the benefits of technological advancement, has led the Adjudicators to continue ROBOFORGE as a popularized sport. Each civilization has been given the opportunity to develop and sell their technology freely, and ROBOFORGE is now accessible to anyone who has the means to compete. Its longevity is insured by its marketability. Private entities compete for commercial pride, constructing their robots from components sourced from any of the ROBOFORGE manufacturers to optimize performance. Revenue from broadcasting, sponsorship and the promotion of trade is immeasurable, while the competition promotes the sharing of knowledge and alleviates interplanetary tensions.

Before you are allowed access to the interstellar transport system, we wish to introduce you to your new neighbors, their technology, and their worlds, by allowing you access to the ROBOFORGE network. We have created software to allow you to remotely design and test combat robots here on Earth. This software allows you to download your designs through our interstellar portal to an automated construction plant on Cytol. At this facility the combat robots are constructed, programmed and delivered to the designated tournament venue, ready for battle.

Fame and fortune await those exceptional few who rise above the competition.

This is your invitation to become a ROBOFORGE designer.

Do you accept?

Robotic Combat Sport The future is here.Roboforge lets you construct gigantic robotic gladiators, train them to think and fight, and then unleash them in massive international tournaments. Sound too good to be true?

Take a look to this TUTORIAL and read on...

Construction The design and construction of a robot is completely up to you. Roboforge is not just a case of simplistic limb options. It is a full 3D robotic construction environment. You can construct virtually any kind of creation by simply clicking components together. You are limited only by your imagination and ingenuity. You can use components from several different manufacturers to construct robots that may look like a creature or vehicle, or ones that look like something never before seen. You can texturize and color your creation component-by-component. You can even create your own textures to further personalize your robot. To get you started, we have a flexible construction wizard that builds a fully functional robot for you in minutes.Components can be basic structures, or one of several special types:

Components

Sensor

SENSOR: Sensors are the eyes of the robot. Placement of the sensors, combined with the range and scope of the sensors chosen, affect how well (if at all) your robot can see its opponent.

joint

JOINT: Joints (or Servos) are the only moving parts of the robot. They have differing power and speed settings. There are swivel, hinge and telescopic joints to choose from. Their performance in battle depends on the weight of the limb they are moving, and the torque on the joint (how far extended the limb is from the joint), giving a realistic and challenging element to your construction decisions.

controller

CONTROLLER: The controller is the brain of the robot. It controls how fast the robot thinks and how well it performs certain automated processes (like searching for it's opponent if it cannot see it). You can use several controllers on a robot to increase its thinking capacity and speed.

energy generator

ENERGY GENERATOR: Many components consume energy when used, particularly joints. Energy Generators replenish the energy used by the actions of your robot. More powerful (and expensive) energy generators are required if you have a particularly hyperactive robot.

weapon

WEAPON: Weapons are the business end of the robot. For interest and entertainment value there are no projectile weapons. Such weapons would render any design decisions pointless, as the game would revert to simplistic point-shoot-evade tactics. Instead the robots must conduct hand-to-hand combat, making for interesting designs and entertaining battles. The momentum of the blow, combined with the capabilities of the weapon, determines how much damage is done to the other robot. Damage is inflicted upon individual components, with the robot's limbs recoiling (and sometimes exploding) from the impact. Damage is accrued over the duration of the fight, and affects the performance of components (i.e. a joint with 50% damage will only operate at 50% of its power and speed).

shield

SHIELD: Shielding is the best way to minimize damage from weapons. Shielding in strategic places can mean the difference between winning and losing, especially when protecting critical components (such as the controller).

movements

You can train your robot to do an unlimited number of 3D combat moves. These can be defensive and offensive. Movement definition is a simple matter of positioning the limbs in critical positions and taking a snapshot of the pose (like a 3D photo). The power and speed of the joints involved, combined with the weight and extension of the limb, determines how fast the robot can perform the move. A typical striking move would only require 2 snapshots (recoil and strike). The simulation engine fills in the rest of the move automatically.

The Artificial Intelligence system is where your robot makes decisions about what moves it wants to do. The wizard system will automatically build a comprehensive AI system for you, but you can tweak or extend this system. The robot can process incoming (or stored) information, and make decisions about what action to take. The interface to the AI is declarative, which is very close to the way we think. A Decision example is: "if my opponent is in front of me and within 3 meters, then do my right hook move" (this is a very simple example).

You don't need to be a programmer to create your own AI as the user's interface is fully intuitive: a basic AI just need to select a few pre-defined function blocks and place them into a graphic flow-chart.

testing Once your robot is ready, you can test it against several training robots that come with Roboforge. From these fights, you can determine weaknesses in your design and strategy and make the appropriate changes. Roboforge lets you analyze the fights in a replay environment which is like a 3D video/DVD player, letting you determine what your robot was thinking, frame by frame. Once your robotic gladiator has crushed these opponents, it is ready for something much, much bigger…

tournaments

Roboforge is run like a professional sport circuit. It is an international circuit and the designers are real people from all over the world.

You can enter your bot into a tournament. Tournaments are NOT pay-to-enter, so robots can be entered into any tournament free of charge. The tournaments run offline, so you can build/modify your robots when you have the time and then just enter them into the next tournament. Your presence is not required during the tournament.

When the tournament is finished you can watch the resulting tournament battle replays (3d graphic). There are "ranked" and "un-ranked" tournaments with different weight (or rather, credit-limit) classes. Results from ranked tournaments are recorded on a 57 day, rolling total leaderboard.

You can also challenge someone else's bots online in a challenge room. Once again there is no human intervention: one person hosts the battle and when it's done both players can view the replay.

Build 3D Virtual Robots and Fight in Massive International Tournaments

RoboForge is now a community project, and is therefore free to download and free for online play. We are able to do this due to the good graces of Liquid Edge Ltd, and the many minds who are working to keep Roboforge ticking along.